How does the European Union contribute to sustainable peace?Contribution by Ian Manners to the 5th anniversary of German Foundation for Peace ResearchThe fifth anniversary of the German Foundation for Peace Research provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the European Union’s strategy for peace in the context of the dreadful events in New York, Bali, Madrid, London, and beyond. The contribution to the anniversary conference and book publication by DIIS Senior Researcher Ian Manners focuses on the role of EU member states and the EU itself in a strategy for |
peace. It argues that since 1950 the European Community, now Union has increasingly served as a normative power in the pursuit of world peace, primarily by pacifying relations between its member states. However, It also argues that EU policies beyond Europe, and since 1995 within Europe, have been part of a normative strategy for sustainable peace. ‘Sustainable peace’ means resolving both the structural causes and violent symptoms of conflict in ways that guarantee, rather than enforce peace. As explored throughout the contribution, the normative principle of sustainable peace should be considered the ‘prime norm’ in the EU, although the EU has historically been far more focused on structural issues of human security than peacekeeping.
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